Termination for Stopping Robbery

The reason that the employees were terminated, says Walmart, is that they violated company policy by apprehending a robber. Like many retailers, Walmart has a policy requiring that employees allow a robber to leave the store to protect it from liability should an employee or customer get injured trying to apprehend the robber.

These employees, at least in Connecticut, might be protected by a public policy concerned with employee safety if they were acting to protect their co-workers. They should also be entitled to unemployment benefits- it seems highly unlikely that these employees were engaged in “willful misconduct!”

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